Fr Cowan’s sojourn as Rector of St Mary Moorfields and ex officio President of the Club ran from 1982 to 1992. However at the 1982 AGM which was chaired by Fr Higgs there was an apology for absence from Fr Cowan and he was welcomed as president at the AGM in 1983. At that meeting his compassionate nature was evident when there was a discussion about the Mass stipend for the annual club Masses. The proposal was that the stipend be increased to £5 and when one member proposed that it should be more Fr Cowan said that it should not be any more than £5 and he was worried that people might get the impression that that should be the amount of an ordinary  Mass stipend.

The following obituary was published in the Westminster Record following Fr Anton’s death in 2017:

Fr Anton Cowan died peacefully at home on on 12 April 2017 aged 74,having served as a priest for 43 years. Born in Chelsea of a Catholic mother and Presbyterian father, his education was in local Catholic schools led to eight years in banking before he acted on the vocation which he had known from an early age. An unusual aspect of his banking career was meeting and keeping contact with Spike Milligan, in some ways the opposite of Father Anton,whose natural preferences were for routine and a quieter life. The spirituality of St Therese of Lisieux with her focus of the Little Way and manifesting God’s love in every detail of life was an inspiration to him. Fr Anton was thus well qualified to act as diocesan censor in consideration of material to be published by the Church; but no less was he careful in maintaining contact with couples he had married and children he had baptised, noting anniversaries and sending cards and letters. The habit characterised his gentle and approachable pastoral care. Father Anton served in a number of parishes throughout his ministry, and particularly for less years or more at Our Lady of Willesden, St Mary Moorfields and finally at Cheshunt before retiring in 2014. May he rest in peace.